Grivalia Properties

Greek stocks presented a mixed picture after Wednesday's session, as a slight majority of stocks as well as the mid-cap and small-cap indexes headed lower, but the benchmark and blue chips continued to rise.

Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender by assets, said on Friday that its takeover of Grivalia Properties was given the green light by the European Union's competition authority because it meets state aid rules.

In November Eurobank agreed a 780-million-euro deal to buy Grivalia Properties to boost its capital and speed up the reduction of sour loans.

Grivalia Properties' investment program continues even though the real estate investment company is about to be absorbed by the Eurobank Group and cease operating as a REIC.

Greek stocks presented a mixed picture on Friday as Athinon Avenue closed for Christmas, with the benchmark ending lower for the sixth session in a row while the banks and mid-caps indexes posted gains for the first time in more than a week.

The Greek stock market succumbed to pressure early on Wednesday but eventually narrowed its morning losses almost down to zero by the close.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 656.92 points, down less than 0.01 percent from Tuesday's 656.96 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index contracted 0.39 percent to 1,720.96 points, while the mid-cap index expanded 0.46 percent.

Traders reaped on Tuesday some of the gains recorded in the last three sessions at Athinon Avenue (when the benchmark added almost 9.4 percent), while selling moves were moderated compared to the agressive action seen in previous weeks.

Oversold bank stocks staged a remarkable rebound in Thursday's bourse session, with Alpha and National announcing a return to profit in July-September at the end of the trading day. The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) was also buoyed by rallying international markets, the drop in Greek bond yields and a favorable report by Moody's on the Bank of Greece proposal for slashing bad loans.

The planned merger between the Eurobank Group and Grivalia Properties that was announced on Monday is aimed at the full streamlining of Greece's third-largest lender through the drastic reduction of its portfolio of nonperforming exposures from 39 percent of all loans at end-September to 15 percent at end-2019 and below 10 percent in 2021.

Greek 10-year government bond yields on Monday saw their biggest one-day fall since September after a strong rally in Italian bonds helped boost support for peripheral assets.

Analysts also attributed the move to a boost for Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender, on news it will acquire real estate company Grivalia Properties.

Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender, will acquire real estate company Grivalia Properties, a Eurobank official told Reuters on Sunday.

The deal will be a share-swap transaction and boost the lender's capital base by about 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion), the official said without giving the value of the deal.
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